About

Return to the world of Root with The Underworld Expansion. Tunnel through the land as The Great Underground Duchy. Infiltrate the hands of your opponents with the Corvid Conspiracy. And, with two additional maps, new and experienced players have never had so many ways to explore Root!

In the fall of 2017, we brought Root to Kickstarter. With your support, we expanded the scope of the game, offering new factions and improvements to the game’s components. It has been an immense privilege and a pleasure to bring Root to market, and we couldn’t have done it without you all.

Shortly after the game’s release, we began to see eager players and designers produce new content for the game. We understood the impulse—even as we had moved to other projects, everyone in the office continued thinking about Root and working on new content for the game on their own.

In the winter, Patrick pitched his concept for a new expansion: two new factions and two new maps, built to expand the possible faction configurations and offer totally new styles of play. Patrick handed the design to Nick Brachmann and Cole Wehrle for final development and, after months of work, the game is ready to share.

With this Kickstarter, we want to raise funds to print the new expansion and another large run of existing Root products. In the past, we’ve always done our best to take care of our Kickstarter backers. Root: The Underworld Expansion will be no different. Backers who pledge at a level that includes the new expansion will also get a set of custom Vagabond meeples, a set of resin clearing markers, and an alternative deck (The Exiles and Partisans) for free!

In addition, we’ve got a new set of automated factions built in collaboration with Benjamin Schmauss and his Better Bot Project. And, for our returning backers, we have a full set of new faction boards with the rules updates from the third printing. If you'd like to play with these alterations without buying the replacement boards, you can find the update kit on our website.

Root is a fully asymmetric strategy board game designed by Cole Wehrle, lavishly illustrated by Kyle Ferrin, and brought to life by the team at Leder Games. First released in the summer of 2018, Root was the next chapter in our exploration of truly asymmetric game design. Like our previous title, Vast: The Crystal Caverns, each player in Root has unique capabilities and a different way to win. Stalk the woods as one of the Vagabonds, seize the initiative with the Eyrie birds of prey, rule over your subjects as the Marquise de Cat, or command the Woodland Alliance to create a new order. With creatures and cunning, you'll rule a fantastic forest kingdom in the ultimate asymmetric game of adventure and war.

In Root, the players drive the narrative, and the differences among the roles create unparalleled interaction and replayability.

Over the past year, Root has inspired players around the world. Just check out this amazing video tribute from Boris Ignjatovic and Sanja Ignjatovic.

The Corvid Conspiracy ransoms the hands of their opponents by filling them with their agents. Using these agents, the Corvids can trigger insidious plots and advance their own agenda. But as each plot comes to fruition, their hideout must move to a different forest in the Woodland before their great conspiracy is unmasked!

For generations the Duchy extended its reach through the caverns below the great woods. Now, newly elected lords in the Duchy's Parliament have raised a call to explore the lands above. Armies have been mustered and new tunnels prepared for the coming struggle. The creatures of the woods will soon learn to fear the great power beneath their feet.

The struggle for dominance continues in the great mountains to the northeast of the Woodland. Fight for control of the narrow mountain pass or dig new tunnels to the great mountain caverns.

The conflict moves west to the homeland of the Riverfolk! Battle for control over the great lake by skillfully managing the ancient riverboat. Shore up your coastal clearings or explore the hinterland in the hills beyond.

Swap out the game's original deck with this new set of cards, free to backers of Root: The Underworld Expansion. While the items to craft remain unchanged, players can develop over 20 new special powers. Recruit ex-Eyrie officers to help run your military operation, or dig your own tunnels through the Woodland!

Since Root was released, we have been amazed by the ingenuity of our players in crafting their own print-and-play copies of the game. As a tribute to those fans, we will be releasing new print-and-play kits for each part of the expansion over the course of this campaign. These kits don't represent the final product you'll receive, but they'll give you a good taste of what's to come. You can find all of our released kits for Root: The Underworld Expansion by clicking on the images below:

Throughout the campaign, we will stream games featuring some of the new content. Our first stream will be Saturday, March 16, at 2pm CST. You can find the stream here. All of our games will be captured and later posted on to YouTube.

Risks and challenges

Since our last Kickstarter, our company has grown to 8 individuals. We now have a steady documented process to deliver games and a plan for project management.

We are currently waiting for Vast: The Mysterious Manor to start shipping this summer. As we now send everything to Atlas’ new facility this will not impact day-to-day creative work. The operations team will work with Atlas Games (as well as our other vendors) to manage delivery. While this is all going on Patrick and Cole are working on their next titles, but they are ready to step in and manage any crisis.

There are risks to the continuity of the business if something should happen to Patrick Leder. However, in this circumstance, we have contingency plans with Patrick Leder’s spouse and Marshall Britt, the Operations Director of Leder Games.

We have many established business partners in every part of the process, from printing to customer service to fulfillment. We do not foresee any challenges and can change partners as needed.